Can we say summer is over or should we wait until end of this month? The summer was nice and mild for a long time but it decided to hit most of the country with long duration heat wave, hopefully all readers are safe, along with their family members and friends. As mentioned in previous updates, this has been a very busy year and this past month just added to the stories to be told. Personally I had driven to the West coast once as a teenager taking a family trip, we drove to Los Angeles and San Francisco and this produced some great memories. The only other time was with my wife and son (he was 2), when we made our way to Oregon, into Washington and ultimately to southern Alaska. One memory that I did not retain was the length of time it takes for that type of adventure, that all changed in August. In the previously mentioned trips, there was more than one driver and this helps tremendously, I was not so lucky for the majority of my trips.

In total I made three different trips, first one started in South Dakota, moved to Wyoming for Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, then to Washington State with a stop in Mount Rainier NP before heading for home. I was home for about 16 hours - long enough for laptop drive cleanup, oil change and laundry. Then I was back on the road to Pennsylvania for a weekend job and then a few days later back into the car for a weekend trip to New Hampshire - I can say this is my first time driving to both coasts in one month. For those who get jet lag, I actually drove all four mainland time zones over 3 days, not something I want to try again soon. For those thinking about how many miles were driven on these trips, in total it was around 9432 miles from August 3 to August 28 - it didn't look so far on Google Maps! Our images this month will span across our great country from one coast to the other, hope everyone enjoys our images this month.

Our landscape image this month is from Mount Rainier National Park in Washington state, this was my first visit to the park so my visit was part figure out the layout but also determine good times for photos. Prior to leaving I did some research on locations for sunrise, sunset and poor weather locations; while I did some research on trail closures, I failed to check on road construction. The day after my arrival, the park road that connects the two popular locations was closing for the week and this would mean if I wanted to shoot sunset in the Southwest corner of the park and sunrise in the Northeast corner of the park, there could be nearly an hour longer drive. Did not help that I was camping in the Southwest portion of the park. This image was my first sunrise location in the park, not too bad for not scouting the location before I arrived 30 minutes prior to sunrise. Camera Data: 19mm 1/13 sec F11 ISO100

The second image for this month is a group of Common Loon's moving from location to location last Sunday morning, looking for their breakfast (before I had mine). This morning in New Hampshire on a small lake was extra special as there were a total of eight birds together for most of the hour I spent taking images, one of the birds seemed to be joining the others off and on plus I did not witness any aggressive behavior among the group. While this image only has five in the frame, I liked how the water reflected the various items on shore as the Loons swam past. Shortly after this, Mother Nature started a little rain drizzle to add a little fun to the mix. Common Loon's do not breed in the state of Illinois, actually they do not breed in many US states, so I am not totally familiar with the changes from juvenile to adult. I know from locals near the lake, the mating pair did have one chick that survived this year and I believe the first bird on the left is the young one - based on its bill coloration being different from the others. Camera Data: 560mm 1/1000 sec F4 ISO6400

Note, neither desktop image works well for a mobile phone background, so I selected a different image for your mobile phones - Common Loon flapping its wings to remove water, this is a guess and I have not talked with any Loon expert to know why this is done.

Here's a link to download the appropriate version of this month's image for your desktop, one for standard screens and one for wide-screens along with a Mobile Phone Image. For desktop computers or tablets, Right click on the text for the format you need and select Save As, save to a location on your device and change the background as needed for your OS.

For Mobile devices, most mobile phones are straight forward to download images but Apple users might need a few tips.
Apple iOS Downloads - click the Mobile Phone link to open the image:
Without 3D Touch enabled - tap and hold on the image, select Save Image
With 3D Touch enabled - tap and hold but with no pressure on the screen, select Save Image

If anyone has problems or questions with their mobile device, let me know and I will try to assist.

http://www.timlesterimages.com/calendar/september.html

Enjoy the images this month and let me know if you have any questions and comments!

Tim Lester

TIM LESTER IMAGES
Email: tim@PROTECTED
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